Cargo

On the morning of 16 October 2008, a Gippsland Aeronautics GA8 Airvan, registered VH-WRT, was being operated on a freight charter flight from Elcho Island and return, Northern Territory. At about 1230, it was realised that the aircraft was missing. A witness reported seeing the aircraft during the early stages of the flight and, shortly afterwards, a column of dark black smoke rising from the eastern side of the Napier Peninsula. On 17 October 2008, items of wreckage from the aircraft were found in the south-western part of Buckingham Bay. The pilot, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft, and the main wreckage of the aircraft have not been found. After consideration of the available evidence, the investigation was unable to identify any factor that contributed to the accident.

Upon landing at Lokichoggio Airport, the airplane banked right, causing the right propeller and the right wing to struck the runway surface. The aircraft slid for few dozen metres before coming to rest. There were no injuries while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.

The accident flight was the first flight following maintenance that included flight control cable rigging. The flight was also intended to provide cockpit familiarization for the first officer and the pilot observer, and as a training flight for the first officer. About one minute after takeoff, the first officer contacted the tower and stated that they needed to return to land. The airplane impacted a cornfield about one mile southwest of the approach end of the runway, and 2 minutes 40 seconds after the initiation of the takeoff roll. The cockpit voice recorder (CVR) indicated that, during the flight, neither the captain nor the first officer called for the landing gear to be raised, the flaps to be retracted, or the power levers to be reduced from full power. From the time the first officer called "rotate" until the impact, the captain repeated the word "pull" about 27 times. When the observer pilot asked, "Come back on the trim?" the captain responded, "There's nothing anymore on the trim." The inspection of the airplane revealed that the elevator trim cables were rigged improperly, which resulted in the trim cables being reversed. As a result, when the pilot applied nose-up trim, the elevator trim system actually applied nose-down trim. The flight crew was briefed on the maintenance work that had been performed on the airplane; therefore, when the captain’s nose-up trim inputs were affecting his ability to control the airplane, at a minimum, he should have stopped making additional inputs and returned the airplane to the configuration it was in before the problem worsened. An examination of the maintenance instruction cards used to conduct the last inspection revealed that the inspector's block on numerous checks were not signed off by the Required Inspection Item (RII) inspector. The RII inspector did not sign the item that stated: "Connect elevator servo trim tab cables and rig in accordance with Allison Convair [maintenance manual]...” The item had been signed off by the mechanic, but not by the RII inspector. The card also contained a NOTE, which stated in bold type, "A complete inspection of all elevator controls must be accomplished and signed off by an RII qualified inspector and a logbook entry made to this effect." The RII inspector block was not signed off.

The aircraft departed Nairobi-Jomo Kenyatta Airport on a cargo flight to the K50 Airstrip located about 35 km southwest of Mogadishu, carrying three crew members and a load of 5,4 tons of khat. On approach by night, the crew was unable to establish a visual contact with the runway due to foggy conditions. The captain initiated a go-around and the crew attempted a second approach to land. Too low, the airplane collided with a 60 metres high communication antenna and crashed 2 km from the airport. All three occupants were killed.

On the Saturday 9 August 2008, a Pilatus Porter PC-6 B2-H4 aircraft, registered PK-RCZ, operated by AMA (Association of Mission Aviation) on a charter flight from Wamena, Papua, to Taive II, Papua departed at 1000 UTC. The aircraft was to pick up a medical patient from Taive II. After landing and unloading cargo at Taive II, the aircraft departed from Taive II for NduNdu, Papua, at 1106 with an estimated time of arrival of 1113. The flight was to be operated in accordance with the visual flight rules (VFR), remaining clear of cloud and navigating visually. When the aircraft had not arrived by 1213, the Wamena authorities decided to search for the aircraft. Three operators assisted the search; Association of Mission Aviation (AMA), Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), and Yajasi. They all reported hearing PK-RCZ’s emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signal, but were unable to reach the crash site due to the weather conditions. At 2020 (0520 local time on Sunday 10 August), the aircraft wreckage was found at an elevation of 6,400 feet at the coordinates 03° 26’ 08” S, 138° 21’ 58” E, in the area of NduNdu Pass, on the aircraft’s planned track. The crash site was about 200 feet to the left (east) of the southerly track across the Pass, on the slope of an 11,000 foot mountain. The coordinates and elevation of the lowest point in the NduNdu Pass were
03° 26’ 26” S, 138° 21’ 22” E and 5,700 feet. The pilot, the sole occupant, was fatally injured.

Shortly after take off from Bogotá-El Dorado Airport, while climbing by night, the crew informed ATC about engine problems and was cleared for an immediate return. After the crew realized he could not make it, he attempted an emergency landing when the aircraft collided with a farm and crashed in an open field. While all 8 crew members were injured (five seriously), two people in the farm were killed. The aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces.

The aircraft departed Hamilton, Ontario, on a cargo flight to Saltillo, Coahuila, with an intermediate stop in Shreveport, LA, carrying two pilots and a load consisting of 4 tons of auto parts. The aircraft arrived in Shreveport at 2319LT and departed at 2348LT. On approach to Saltillo-Plan de Guadalupe Airport, the crew encountered low visibility due to poor weather conditions and dark night. On final approach to runway 17, as the captain was unable to establish a visual contact with the runway, he decided to abandon the approach and initiated a go-around procedure. Nine seconds later, the aircraft stuck the ground and crashed 550 metres to the east of the runway 17 threshold, bursting into flames. The aircraft was totally destroyed, the captain was killed and the copilot was seriously injured.

The aircraft was cleared for takeoff and began its departure roll with flaps retracted, according to flight data recorder. The aircraft rotated at 280 kph (151 knots) and became airborne at 288 kph (155 knots) at an angle of attack of about 8-9 degrees. Tyre marks on the runway showed, that the aircraft had gone past the end of the runway, the main tyres had impacted runway end lights and the tyre tracks continued past the paved surface of the stopway. Climbing through 15 feet the pilot flying commanded the gear up and increased the pitch angle, the angle of attack increased to more than 10 degrees while the gear doors opened for gear retraction increasing the drag of the aircraft, which began to slow, the speed reduced to 305 kph (164 knots), stall speed for the takeoff weight, and the left wing began to stall, the angle of attack increased to 17 degrees, the aircraft at a height of 5-7 meters/15-23 feet. The pilot flying tried to counteract the roll to the left by fully applying left aileron which also deployed the right wing spoilers, right rudder input was provided. The pilot flying instructed the flight engineer to NOT retract flaps indicative neither pilot was aware the flaps were up. Following that instruction the flight engineer selected the flaps down, the aircraft speed was 300 kph (162 knots) and the aircraft in an unrecoverable stall with no height left. The left hand wing struck a high voltage mast about 1200 meters past the runway end at a height of 5.4 meters (18 feet) shearing off the left wing tip, contacted the flag post at the entrance of the Green Square, the left wing contacted the stem of a tree at a height of about 40 cm (1.3 feet) separating the ailerons and causing fuel spilling from the left wing, the aircraft broke through the eastern brick wall of Green Square, collided with two more electric poles causing engine #4 to separate 1504 meters from the end of the runway and impacted ground at 30 degrees nose down, 30 degrees left bank. Debris was distributed over a length of more than 500 meters, the aircraft burst into flames. All 4 crew perished in the crash, 4 people on the ground received serious, 3 more received minor injuries.

On June 28, 2008, about 2215 Pacific daylight time, an ABX Air Boeing 767-200, N799AX, operating as flight 1611 from San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, California, experienced a ground fire before engine startup. The captain and the first officer evacuated the airplane through the cockpit windows and were not injured, and the airplane was substantially damaged. The cargo flight was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121. At the time of the fire, the airplane was parked near a loading facility, all of the cargo to be transported on the flight had been loaded, and the doors had been shut.

The aircraft departed Khartoum at 0555LT on a cargo flight to Juba with 8 crew members on board. While cruising at FL170 in bad weather conditions, the engines n° 1 failed. One minute later, the engine n°3 failed as well, followed 40 seconds later by the failure of the engine n°4. The aircraft initiated a descent with a rate of 3,450 feet per minute and reach the altitude of 800 feet three minutes and 40 seconds after the failure of the engine n°1. At an altitude of 600 feet, the crew stabilized the aircraft and elected to restart the three engines but without success. Too low, the aircraft struck trees, lost its left stabilizer and crashed in a prairie 264 metres past the initial impact, bursting into flames. A crew member was rescued while 7 other occupants were killed.